Jump to content

U.S. Politics: Despite Negative Press Covfefe, We Will Always Have Paris


Recommended Posts

35 minutes ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

Benjamin Wittes of Lawfare breaks down why he thinks the Comey opening statement is the most shocking document compiled against the actions of a U.S. President since Watergate...

https://www.lawfareblog.com/initial-comments-james-comeys-written-testimony

It's an interesting piece, but mind the point of view. For example:

Quote

It’s hard to express to people who are not steeped in federal law enforcement just how inappropriate these inquiries are, particularly when they involve an investigation in which the President has such deep and multifaceted personal stakes. No, they are not illegal. The President, after all, has constitutional authority to ask for whatever information he wants from his subordinates in the executive branch. But of course, the President also has the authority to give the State of the Union address in Latin and have it consist entirely of obscenities directed at the Speaker of the House. To people who know the norms of federal law enforcement, the conduct described here is closer to that end of the spectrum of presidential behavior than it is to the normal range.

A different way to put this is that Trump is not playing by the rules of the deep state and they are really, really angry about it (even though it is not illegal because the founders tried very hard to prevent or at least leash any entity such as "federal law enforcement"). CNN is doing its best to hype this, but there doesn't seem to be anything actionable here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have to say, when anyone defending Trump uses the phrase 'the deep state', I chuckle. It is never used correctly, it's just inserted as a sinister-sounding catchall for anyone who doesn't tug their forelock at Trump's passing.

That said, I agree that the Comey evidence focuses on norms of behaviour and as we all know Trump does not give and never has given a shit about adhering to norms. He doesn't give a shit about adhering to laws either, of course. Propriety is just another tool to be used against other people, in Trump's mind.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yup. Not demanding personal loyalty from law enforcement or using your office to obstruct investigations into your administration is one of those unwritten democratic norms.

It's the kind of thing you expect to see in tinpot dictatorships and military juntas. Not in a developed democracy. I'm honestly surprised anyone would try to defend it. Really isn't a good precedent.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

This thread seems to be in the calm-before-the-storm mode.  )

Frankly, I'm in calm-before-the-nothingburger mode.

This is not the first Important Testimony™ against Trump. It's not even Comey's first. And once again, we expect a game-changer. But in today's instant-gratification media landscape, it seems like most of what Comey can do to damage Trump has already been pre-empted by releaisng the statement up front. We still have a tough interrogation to look forward to, of course, but it also seems like the questioning part of these hearings is usually pretty pointless and doesn't yield a lot of extra ammunition for anyone. It's a bunch of lawmakers trying to signal their own support/opposition through a bunch of queries that result in evasive non-answers.

I dunno if I'm too cynical about this, but it seems that Comey's early release of the statement pretty much sums up everything there is to his part in the larger story. The extreme media hype doesn't help, either - everyone will be looking for something damning beyond what's in the opening statement. But I guess the question is - if Comey doesn't accuse Trump of obstruction, and if no new details emerge during the interrogation, what is the actual next step for the Russia conspiracy theorists?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, Impmk2 said:

Yup. Not demanding personal loyalty from law enforcement or using your office to obstruct investigations into your administration is one of those unwritten democratic norms.

It's the kind of thing you expect to see in tinpot dictatorships and military juntas. Not in a developed democracy. I'm honestly surprised anyone would try to defend it. Really isn't a good precedent.

Exactly. Once again, if you reverse the positions and President Hillary Clinton told Comey she needs and expects complete loyalty and to drop an investigation into Huma Abedin, the right would be going mental. This is even worse given this has to do with an adversarial country that completed a multi year campaign to disrupt our democratic elections. But nope, it's all good. Trump is just having a "New York" conversation or is "too dumb" to realize he's obstructing justice. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

Tomorrow should be fun. I am praying so hard to a God I do not believe in that Trumpy will be live tweeting. That will insure that we will get some batshit insanity.

So there are no atheists in Trumpholes? :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

This thread seems to be in the calm-before-the-storm mode.  )

If  as promised, it is the calm before a Trump tweet-storm.   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ray Dalio is a flamin’ idiot. Now what exactly was Dalio expecting from Trump? You know, if Dalio just wanted a big old tax cut, then fine. But, I’d like to know what in the hell he really expected Trump to actually accomplish. 

He probably ought to rename is his firm to "Bilgewater"

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-05/dalio-concerned-by-consequences-of-trump-s-pursuit-of-conflict

Quote

Billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio, who was initially bullish on Donald Trump’s ability to stimulate the economy, is growing increasingly concerned about the potential consequences of his presidency.

 

More on the “Brownback Boom”.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/07/kansas-republicans-raise-taxes-rebuking-their-gop-governors-real-live-experiment-in-conservative-policy/

Quote

In a decisive repudiation of conservative tax-cutting philosophy, Kansas Republicans voted this week to reverse deep tax cuts enacted by Gov. Sam Brownback (R), a move that lays bare the challenges of one-party control and the risks for Republicans in Washington pursuing a similar policy at the national level.

So, how many of you Republicans, back in 2012 or so, were “Bullish On Brownback”? Don’t be shy. Let us hear all about it. And are ya still “Pumped For Trump”?

"The Party of Business." Snort, laugh, snicker, guffaw.

 

Trump’s nonsensical infrastructure plan. To the extent it exist, it’s all one big corporate give away. No wonder Blankfein is getting all excited.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/06/08/trump-keeps-pretending-his-infrastructure-plan-is-real-its-not/

Quote

President Trump's "$1 trillion infrastructure plan” isn't $1 trillion and it isn't a plan. It's a $200 billion plan to have a plan that hasn't advanced beyond that stage for six months now.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

Tomorrow should be fun. I am praying so hard to a God I do not believe in that Trumpy will be live tweeting. That will insure that we will get some batshit insanity.

From what I read this morning, Trump has proactively denied any involvement with Russian prostitutes. That makes me wonder if that had come up in someone's earlier investigation  that had some corroboration of the Steele dossier. All it would take is the question as to why did Trump mention Russian prostitutes? Had this come up in the investigation?

Batshit insanity will then be forthcoming.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is anyone else amused that Partisan Republican and Partisan Democratic opinions of James Comey depend almost literally on the last thing the man said?  How many times have either side either demonized or deified Comey depending on what he was doing or saying at a given moment.  

:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 07/06/2017 at 5:32 AM, lokisnow said:

obviously the US should not default, but republicans have more than enough votes to solve this problem on their own.

Democrats obviously should not collaborate with republicans to raise the debt ceiling so that the wealthy can get gargantuan tax cuts. Why should they make the enemy's number one policy goal easier to achieve? Republicans can do that work themselves.

any democrat that did collaborate with the enemy in such a way as to ennable gargantuan tax cuts for the wealthy should be primaried out of office as fast as possible.

If it's a clean bill the Dems should vote for it. This would be consistent with what they did under Obama and the sensible way to treat a nuclear bomb. 

On 07/06/2017 at 5:49 AM, Kalbear said:

The problem is that if the Republicans refuse to unbundle debt ceiling increases with other increases or policies, what do the Democrats do?

Do they just go along with massive tax cuts and entitlement cuts? Do they kill the ACA because they need the debt ceiling raised? These are some of the things that can happen. It's what Republicans threatened last time, too. 

Really, the party that gets blamed when things go to shit is the party in office. Democrats need to recognize that posthaste. I don't want them to use leverage to increase it to get what they want, but I sure as hell don't want the Republicans to use the threat of it to get what THEY want either. They're the party of majority; suck it up and govern. 

Hold to the Obama stance. Clean bill. At the end of the day the Repubs have the votes to pass anything else themselves. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/336683-eric-trump-dems-not-even-people

Quote

President Trump’s son Eric Trump on Tuesday said Democrats are “not even people” to him after their obstruction of his father’s agenda.

“I’ve never seen hatred like this,” he said on Fox News’s “Hannity” Tuesday night. “To me, they’re not even people. It’s so, so sad. Morality’s just gone, morals have flown out the window and we deserve so much better than this as a country. 

Eric Trump implies that his dad’s opponents and possibly all Democrats are “not even people”.

And maybe I should feel outrage here, but, all I can do is kind of yawn here and go “meh” because I don’t simply give a flyin’ fuck what Trumpsters or for that matter what Republicans think.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, it's clear where this is going. Nothing completely incriminating or vindicating will come from this. Once this hearing is over, the two sides will continue fight over whether Trump tried to bring Comey into his fold in order to protect himself from something specific, or if the 'loyalty' question was simply inappropriate rather than incriminating.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So far nothing Comey has said precludes there is no current ongoing FBI investigation of the oval office occupant and direct, personal campaign, political and financial connections to Russia.  This could be a 'tell' in itself.  But it's early in the day, and this is going to go on for as long as it takes for every senator to get his time in front of the cameras.  Nevertheless, so far it's pretty high vitamin content.

He's getting the full treatment that women who have been sexually harassed, pressured and raped of "Why didn't you just tell that dirty old man harassing you at dinner to stop?  You should have just gotten up and left.  You said, he said, there's no proof that you're not making all this up."  Except, of course, there is proof that he didn't make this up, including that the deranged one's long time friends tell us that his behavior in these contacts fits in with all his behaviors they've witnessed him commit over many years.

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

33 minutes ago, OldGimletEye said:

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/336683-eric-trump-dems-not-even-people

Eric Trump implies that his dad’s opponents and possibly all Democrats are “not even people”.

And maybe I should feel outrage here, but, all I can do is kind of yawn here and go “meh” because I don’t simply give a flyin’ fuck what Trumpsters or for that matter what Republicans think.

The best part is the insinuation that people mocking Trump have no morals for doing so, and then he calls Dems not even people and DNC Chair Perez a whack job. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Reny of Storms End said:

The best part is the insinuation that people mocking Trump have no morals for doing so, and then he calls Dems not even people and DNC Chair Perez a whack job. 

He learned his own morals at home. Morality, for the Trumps, is whatever serves the Trumps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, Zorral said:

He's getting the full treatment that women who have been sexually harassed, pressured and raped of "Why didn't you just tell that dirty old man harassing you at dinner to stop?  You should have just gotten up and left.  You said, he said, there's no proof that you're not making all this up."  Except, of course, there is proof that he didn't make this up, including that the deranged one's long time friends tell us that his behavior in these contacts fits in with all his behaviors they've witnessed him commit over many years.

 

 

 

Exactly my thoughts as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...